Thunderbird — created by Mozilla, the organization behind Firefox — has been a popular free email client with a loyal following over the years, despite threats of halting updates and further development of the application. While Thunderbird email is a powerful cross-platform app with a robust library of add-on features that allow for full customization of your email experience, Mozilla no longer supports it, and that can be an issue for a lot of users.
So, that’s not the best news if you are accustomed to using Thunderbird.
While there are tons of Thunderbird email reviews, good and bad, this article will be useful for those looking for using Thunderbird alternative.
While some may enjoy the added functionalities, others may find this difficult and complicated to set up. Also, Thunderbird’s interface may not be as user-friendly as other email clients out there, including those that have just as many (if not more) advanced features.
For these reasons, you may be considering alternatives to Thunderbird. Whether you’re looking for an entirely new mail client or switching from Thunderbird, we’ve compiled a review of five Windows options below to evaluate in place of Thunderbird.
Since Thunderbird is a downloadable program for PCs and Apple OS, we won’t be including mobile apps in this review. Keep reading to find reviews of alternatives to Thunderbird and choose a replacement that works for you.
The 4 Best Alternatives to Thunderbird Mail
If you are looking for a Thunderbird alternative, here you will find a review of the following:
- Mailbird — a powerful and feature-packed email client
- eM Client — a simple design and user-friendly interface
- Postbox — a beautifully designed interface
- Webmail — any web-based email manager
Mailbird
Mailbird is one of the best alternatives to Thunderbird you can find. It is a
Having a clean interface in front of you coupled with an interaction that makes managing your online communication easier is a sweet deal.
Mailbird is super easy to use and promises you will be able to master it within five minutes. A great email experience is what you should strive for, and Mailbird gives you exactly that.
“I’ve purchased Mailbird for my old mother as well, as it’s easy to use. She’s not in anyway computer savvy, but last weekend I actually got an email from her — the first ever, imagine my (very pleasant) surprise!
For me Mailbird is a keeper — easy to use and most importantly easy to configure!! My 80 year old mom is a testament to that.” Lars — May 12.
We will be looking at the following areas to see if Mailbird is the best alternative to Thunderbird for you too:
- Layout and UI
- Most Popular Features
- Cost
1. Layout and User Experience
The biggest difference between Thunderbird and Mailbird is that the former is no longer updated. Also, it is known for its cluttered and bloated layout and UI, making it rather complicated for new and even existing users to handle the software.
Sure, if you use softwares on a daily basis you eventually learn how to get around it — in fact, that’s even the case with rocket science. But is that the best utilization of your time? Software, in this day and age, should be intuitive enough to not have a learning curve, so spending a few days unraveling the mystery of using a mail client seems like being pushed back to the early 2000s technologically.
Lack of simplicity, a clean UI, and an intuitive UX are the main reasons people start searching for a Thunderbird replacement. Email clients such as Mailbird feature an easy-to-use interface, enabling users to master it in less than five minutes (not days).
User Experience
User experience is the little details you don’t recognize consciously but that intuitively guide you to use the software.
The Mailbird email client has many such features. Let’s look at examples:
Example #1
Let’s say you’re a Dropbox user and you activated the Dropbox app from your Mailbird App Store. Apart from looking at your Dropbox app by clicking on the Dropbox icon in the bottom left, the only other place you’ll find it is when you’re composing a new email or replying to one. It shows up like this –
And when clicked upon, it opens the Dropbox file explorer for you to select files to be attached.
Example #2
You might think an email client like Mailbird could not offer as many features and functionalities as Thunderbird. Otherwise, the inbox and menu would look the same, right? That is not quite correct.
Instead of filling the interface with lots of buttons and options, we hid them to show up on certain user actions. If you look at how emails are stacked in Mailbird, it looks just like any other email program, but when you hover over the profile picture of an email message, an action bar shows up on top, which makes it easier for you to deal with it.
You can even click on the profile picture of an email message, and it will show you all the emails you’ve exchanged with the person. Such features make you wonder, “Why use Thunderbird anymore?”
Layout and UI
In Mailbird, you can customize the layout and color theme, personalizing your inbox.
2. Most Popular Features
As far as alternatives to Thunderbird go, people tend to look for the ones that have the same features as Thunderbird, regardless of whether or not they will actually use those features,
Mailbird has integrated the standard features users know from Thunderbird, and the client also offers special Mailbird-only features that have not yet been implemented by any other email app. These features include a quick preview of attachments, a speed reader, LinkedIn lookup, snooze, and many others.
Integration with Third-Party Apps
An additional feature that differentiates Mailbird from other email clients is the integration of a variety of popular apps, turning Mailbird into a true all-in-one communication hub by combining email, messaging, task management, calendar contacts, and video meetings in the most effective way possible.
Mailbird’s all-star developer team continues to add and improve these features requested by you. Think Mailbird needs a certain feature to convince you to switch? We have a Mailbird Feature Request forum where you can submit your ideas.
Imagine working as a productivity machine through your email while also being able to jump on a call without having to switch to a web browser or other software. It’s not just convenient but also way more efficient. In Mailbird, as the best Thunderbird replacement, you have all your communication power tools in one place. You don’t have to open different web browsers to manage multiple tasks. In the Mailbird vs. Thunderbird battle, the former is the absolute winner, thanks to this feature.
Featured apps include:
- Messaging apps, like Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp.
- Task management apps and tools, like Todoist, Moo.do, Evernote, and Asana, can easily be activated in your Mailbird AppStore.
- Video meeting apps, such as Whereby and Veeting Rooms, allow you to easily jump on a call or virtual meeting, without having to leave your Inbox.
- Calendar apps, like Google Calendar and Sunrise Calendar, give you a nice overview of your upcoming appointments and enable you to schedule appointments from your Mailbird.
3. Cost
Mailbird has four different pricing options to choose from. Depending on the number of accounts and your actual email needs, Mailbird has the perfect plan for you, which may include:
- Mailbird Personal Yearly
- Mailbird Personal Pay Once
- Mailbird Business Yearly
- Mailbird Business Pay Once (on request only)
Mailbird gives you a free trial when you install it for the first time. This is a great chance to find out if Mailbird Business is the right choice for you.
Still have questions before downloading Mailbird? Our team is always there to help you out. Shoot us an email to support@getmailbird.com or tweet us @getmailbird. We are ready to help you and to answer every single one of your questions. That’s a great value that comes with Mailbird — direct responses and feedback to help you through your email, communication, and communication management needs.
Ready to make the switch to the best alternative to Thunderbird? Simply start downloading Mailbird! You’ll just love it.
Mailbird vs Thunderbird. Give It a Free Try Now!
eM Client
eMclient is one of the high rated alternatives to Thunderbird mail. Users praise its simple design and user-friendly interface that allows for customization of layout and theme. It offers the most features for free compared to other options; the only differences are that the Pro version lets you connect an unlimited number of accounts and includes tech support. The free version supports only two email accounts.
Migrating to eM Client is quick and easy, and it can transfer your messages and calendar contacts from a variety of other common email clients, including Gmail, Exchange, iCloud, and Microsoft Outlook or Outlook.com. It also has a real-time chat function for instant messaging — you can even send attachments through it! Some other notable features include automatic translation of emails, a fast search function, and encryption options.
Postbox
Postbox is one of the easiest to use alternatives to Thunderbird on this list. It works with any POP/IMAP account, including Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, and more. Once you’ve added your accounts, you can group them, in “personal” and “work” groups for example, to keep your email organized.
The application’s filtering and tagging features allow you to get even more organized — all on a beautifully designed interface. You even have emoji support, 25 email signature templates, and 70 professionally written email response templates at your disposal.
It’s important to note that the Postbox mail client also includes integrations with services like Evernote, Slack, Todoist, and more.
Webmail
Even in a Mozilla Thunderbird review, webmail is always worth mentioning as an alternative. What do we mean by webmail? It’s a web-based mail client — Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook.com (not to be confused with the Microsoft Outlook application) are the most popular options.
Most email providers have some sort of web-based email offering that has a few advantages over an email application. Most importantly, you can access your inbox from any computer and on any browser. You don’t need to download an app to your computer.
On the other hand, you cannot access your email offline, and web-based email clients don’t typically have as many features as desktop apps. It will be important to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of webmail against your needs before deciding to go this route.
Conclusion
Have you found a Thunderbird alternative that suits your requirements for the perfect email client?
If you’re a light user, Postbox or webmail might be the best email application. For more advanced users, consider Mailbird or eM Client. If you need to manage multiple email accounts together with events, tasks, and other tools, Mailbird will help you turn your email app into a productivity workstation with many useful features and an intuitive interface.
At the very least, it can’t hurt to try a few options to see which one you like the best!
